Visiting South-East Asia's oldest botanical gardens | Indonesia Special | Gardening Australia

Bogor is the oldest botanic garden in South-East Asia, founded in 1817, as well as being a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site. It’s also a centre for research and home to more than 12,000 species of plants.

Some of the trees are hundreds of years old. Costa introduces us to the couples trees – two giants planted next to each other, a Red Meranti and a Ficus albipila, both planted in the 1800s – so named because couples often pose at their base for wedding photos and it’s said that standing here will make your love last forever.

Costa meets research Professor Dr Sri Rahayu, from the Research Center for Plant Conservation, Botanic Gardens & Forestry – BRIN, who specialises in hoya plants. Her work has taken her to most of Indonesia’s forests looking for unknown plants – she has described about 20 new species.

There is also a medicinal plant collection of more than 200 plants long used for medicine – some are being studied for the potential for treating illness as well as used in cosmetics.

Only 20% of Indonesia’s plants are understood so there is a lot of work still to do. Sri says many of these plants risk being lost before their properties are realised.

Featured plants:
Red meranti (Rubroshorea leprosula syn. Shorea leprosula)
Abbey tree (Ficus albipila)
Hoya towutiensis
Hoya sumatrana
Hoya sangguensis
Acanthus montanus
Lunasia amara
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[wandashaw]

How amazing 👏 and what a wonderful career the doctor has. ❤

[lisadolan]

2:40 there’s something absolutely divine about the Professor. I just want to hug her and get her a cuppa and a cake 🧁☺️ her energy radiates positivity and peace ♥️

[whatplantisthat]

Bogor is well worth a visit if you're in Jakarta and need some relaxing time away from the urban chaos of the city.

[kilanspeaks]

All the respects in the world for the professor and the rest of her team for their dedication 🙏

[samanthahoos]

Very interesting! I love medicinal gardens!

[agungpurnomo]

A regular visitor here. The Garden is my sweet and quick escape from the capital, just 50 km to the south, about an hour away by train from central Jakarta. Right in the heart of Bogor City, it is just within walking distance from the city station. I would say the government has done a terrific improvement on the garden in the past few years. I love the carnivorous plants and orchids greenhouses and the Mexican gardens. But there is still room for improvement. For example, information should be available for every specimen, especially the giant trees. Visitors would want to know the history of the plant, how long ago was it planted, its conservation status, what medical properties it may contain etc. The aquatic garden is a bit sad and also the garden could use more trash bins. I understand that the garden serves as a living laboratory so I hope there will be more funding for scientific and research activities in the future.

[carlalicandogisma]

Wow! I hope someday I will be able to make a place like that❤

[wombatsticki]

Great work by the Professor. How patronising of Gardening Australia to show that a developing country like Indonesia has serious research going on. Bogor garden has wonderful plant collections, and the interesting thing about them is that some are from Genus and Families of plants we have in Australia. So they showed two trees and then did the patronising bit. Boring as batshit.

[husenkreasi]

What a truly extraordinary view and education from the part of the world called Indonesia. A variety of flora and fauna exist there and adequately represent the needs of the whole world. 😍🥲